Letter from Belleau Wood is the seventh Covington Chronicles book by Mary Lou Cheatham. I read it as a standalone book and feel like Ms. Cheatham crafted her details carefully to fill in any blanks I might have missed by jumping straight into the end of the series. This story is told through the eyes of a young woman named Trudy who grew up loving the neighbor boy and he grew up loving her. The days of childhood with Trudy, her brother Will, and Jeremy together from sunup to sundown are a thing of the past as the three go separate ways for school. But if love was as easy as knowing, that distance would not have led Trudy and Jeremy apart. As they come of age on the cusp of the Great War, it is letters that hold them together with their loved ones. And it is one letter from Belleau Wood that changes everything. Cheatham explores these interactions as the youths grow through war and the Spanish flu pandemic to find who they are and who they are meant to be.
There is a certain level of comfort to the locations in Letter from Belleau Wood, sprinkled throughout the state of my childhood. Though things had changed by the time I attended camp at The W and 4-H events at A&M (now State) I felt a special bit of connection to those places. I couldn’t help wondering if Trudy and her roommates ever saw Mary, the Callaway ghost who kept my camp mates and me awake and always alert. Trudy’s stop at the country store with her papa reminded me of going with my daddy for Coke & peanuts and Moon Pies. Even those who don’t have a strong connection to Mississippi will feel swept into the setting.
Thank you to the author for granting me a copy to read and review. All opinions expressed here are my own and are completely genuine.
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